I know what you mean. CA has more than its share of problems, when I had my shop in Huntington Beach it was a big problem at times.

I know Virgil Hartman moved his shop to SC, about 20 years ago, I went to check it out. The deals looked good and I saw the best dirt track racing ever there.

I just have too many ties here, with my regular job (the one that pays for my racing stuff). And now this is the cheap place to live, I bought my house here in Orange for less than half of what it sold for two years ago.

My plan right now is to build a concrete block building and run power from the house with a phase converter.

I cleared the lot and I am almost finished with grading it.

I'm almost to the point of getting permits etc. I don't want top make any wrong moves here at this point. I made some mistakes in my Huntington Beach shop that cost me a month of extra work getting certifications and permits.

One thing I'm wondering is what kind of roof blocks sound the best?

I'm half tempted to build it underground but I guess the permitting would be difficult. Some people are suggesting to skip the permits but that sounds like trouble.

SchmidtMotorWorks wrote: I bought my house here in Orange for less than half of what it sold for two years ago.

I guess I got out at the right time. I sold my house in HB for twice what I paid for it 2 years earlier.

It was strange to see how the local government out here actually wanted to help me.
Before I finished my rental buildings, I had people from the county helping me find tenants for it. They even wanted to do a ribbon cutting to get me tree ink in the local papers.
Back in the O.C., I was supposed to feel honored to be allowed to do business in their fine county.

I cant say the extra cost would be to me but...
If you call them and talk to the tech guy-Jay i think- he can help you better than me. I would think it depends on how sensitive Mori Seki controls are, but I cant see it being an issue.

I'm sure you have a good number of ideas but here's some of mine-

-Ceiling fans, (house 5-blade reversible, not lame shop fans)
-LOTS of light with multiple options to turn different groups on
-Outlets all over, even up high on the wall for lights, clocks,etc.
-U COAT IT brand epoxy paint on floor, skip the flakes. Makes for a brighter shop and easy to clean dirt,oil,coolant,grease off floor.
-Sink and hot water
-I have 10' ceilings in my shop, so I have OSB on lower 4' of walls and painted white drywall on upper. Makes it easy to mount stuff on lower part of walls and no worries about dings/nicks, bright reflective on top.
-Air Compressor- I dont know how big you can build but I wanted as much floor space as possible, and my Air Compressor just seemed to waste space and was always a pain to drain moisture, and the nice mess that makes. I designed and made a bracket that mounts mine up on the wall in the corner above my rear door. I made a bracket to turn the pump 90* and added a pipe nipple and ball valve to the now bottom side of the tank. Added 6' of 3/8" clear hose, open door, open ball valve and blow all the moisture outside I'v thought about mounting a train steam whistle outside and hooking that hose up to it more than once........